Development and Evaluation of Corn-Cowpea Mixtures as Protein Sources for Nigerian Infants.

The feasibility of producing a low cost, easy to use, and flatulence-free product from corn and cowpeas for Nigerian children was investigated. Cowpea slurry was naturally fermented for 48 hours at room temperature. The pH dropped from 6.38 to 4.20. In fermentation with the yeast, pichia guilliermondii Y-2075, for 72 hours at room temperature, the pH dropped to only 5.60. Soaking and wet milling resulted in nutrient losses. Drum drying of the product did not significantly reduce lysine levels, 90% being biologically available in most samples. Products with good biological value as measured by PER in excess of 2.0 were obtained. Results from NPR confirmed the PER trends. Protein levels increased in the corn:cowpea mixtures with increased proportion of cowpeas. Maximum complementary effect on protein quality was achieved when cowpeas contributed between 33 and 40% of the starting material. Beyond this range, protein quality was reduced even though protein content was higher. Fermentation increased protein levels in the blends. The increase was higher following yeast fermentation. Cystine content was significantly reduced in yeast fermented samples, thus lowering total sulfur amino acids. Except for tryptophan, fermentation increased the essential amino acids. Fermentation markedly affected the salt soluble protein units of the blends. SDS gel electrophoretic analysis showed that fermented samples contained only low molecular weight fractions, and the number of protein subunits were few. The degree of protein breakdown also was higher with yeast fermentation. Significant reduction in the levels of raffinose and stachyose was achieved by fermentation of cowpeas, yeast fermentation being more effective than natural fermentation in this regard. Stachyose was completely eliminated in one sample, and reduced more than 90% in others following yeast fermentation

Antimicrobial and antihelminthic properties of shea butter (Vitellaria paradoxa)

The phytochemical, antimicrobial and antihelminthic screening of the crude extract of three types of Vitellaria paradoxa (shea butter) was investigated in this study. The crude extracts were dissolved in di-methylsulfoxide. The phytochemical constituents of the crude extracts were accessed and compared. Clinical isolates under aseptic conditions were collected from the Medical Microbiology Laboratory, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital and further morphological and biochemical tests were carried out to identify this clinical isolates as; Staphylococcus sp., Escherichia sp., Pseudomonas sp., Klebsiella sp., Streptococcus sp and Candida sp. Inoculums were prepared and adjusted to 0.5ml Mc Farland standard of each test bacterium. It was spread onto sterile Muller Hinton Agar plates so as to achieve even growth. The plates were allowed to dry and a sterile cork borer (6.0mm diameter) was used to bore wells in the agar plates. Ofloxacine and Fluconazole was used as bacteria and fungi control respectively. The crude yellow extracts exhibited inhibitory activities that were found to be higher than crude white and ivory colored extract on all the test organisms. Despite the crude yellow extract exhibited higher inhibitory activities than the other extracts; the antibacterial activity was low in 10-1 to 10-4 dilutions for some bacteria. The crude extracts revealed the presence of Alkaloids, flavonoids, Cardiac glycosides, saponnin, and carbohydrates. Anthraquinnone and phlobatannin were absent in the extracts. This study also revealed that shea butter has no anti-helminth effect after 24hours exposure of the eggs of Ascaris lumbricoides and Trichuris trichuria in the shea oil sample rather; the DMSO used as control killed the eggs. This calls for further investigation

Effect of Tillage Methods and Spacing on the Productivity of Waterleaf

An experiment was carried out at the teaching and research farm of Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria to determine the effect of tillage methods and spacing on the productivity of waterleaf. The treatments consist of three tillage methods (flat, Mound and bed) and three spacing (25x25cm, 30x30cm and 40x40cm). The experiment was a 3x3 factorial arrangement laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) and replicated three times. The results of the experiment indicate improved growth of leaves 40x40cm spacing at 4 and 6WAP. Tillage method using beds and flats produced better and higher yield than mound. However, the waterleaf propagated with 25x25cm spacing  produced highest yield (0.6kg/plot) 3000kg ha-1 while 40x40cm spacing  gave lowest yield (0.323kg/plot) 1610kg-1. From this experiment, the 25x25cm plant spacing is recommended to farmers for waterleaf planting because it maintained soil water because of the close spacing thus improving soil fertility. Farmers are advised to practice this method of vegetable farming which helps to maintain soil fertility for sustainability of vegetable crop production in their area

The Hammock and the Colonial Journey of Conquest: Reminiscences of British Colonialism among the West Niger-Igbo of Nigeria

The article considers the colonial meaning of the hammock. The conversion of the hammock from a stationary apparatus of leisure into that of a mobile train powered by human energy became identified with a symbol of British colonialism. But the introduction of the hammock was not accepted by the people hook, line and sinker; hence it was trailed by accounts of strong resistance and subsequent British policy of enforcement. The fear of the Hammock, carrying the White man on the hammock over a long distance became part of the colonial situation and its societal structure. The article includes a number of contemporary sources to throw light on this understanding of the hammock as not just a means of travel, but also of suppression

Evaluation of probiotic content of common complementary foods used in Mubi Metropolis, Adamawa State, Nigeria

Background: Probiotic bacteria are becoming increasingly important in the context of human nutrition based on the role they play in immunological, digestive and respiratory functions. Objective: This study investigated the probiotic content and strengths of some complementary foods commonly used in Mubi Adamawa state, Nigeria. Materials and Methods: Locally made cereal pastes (kamu) made from cereal grains sorghum, millet, and maize were purchased from the Mubi general market and coded as LSG, LMT and LMZ, respectively. Three most commonly used commercial complementary foods in Mubi metropolis were also purchased from Mubi market packed in cans of 450g each and coded as CC1, CC2, and CC3 respectively. The basic ingredients in each commercial product were recorded from the labels on the packages. De ManRogasa Agar was used to isolate the probiotic bacteria in all the samples using standard methods of AOAC (2000). Colony count and fungi identification were carried out.All analyses were done in triplicates.Data was analysed for means and standard deviation using Statistix 9, version 9.1(2012). RESULT: Commercial complementary foods CC1 and CC2 had Lactobacillus species isolated with bacteria count of 7.5 x 102 and 8.7 x 102 Cfu / g respectively while CC3 had no bacterial specie isolated. Local complementary food LSG had no probiotic bacteria isolated while LMTand LMZ had Lactobacillus species isolated with bacteria count of 5.4 x 102 and 6.5 x 102 (Cfu/g) respectively. Commercial complementary foods CC1, CC2 and CC3 had no yeast isolated. Local complementary food LSG had the least yeast count of 1.01 x 103 (Cfu / g) of Saccharomycescerevasiae. LMT had 6.06 x 102Cfu /g and LMZ had the highest yeast count of 9.26 x 102(Cfu / g ) of Saccharomyces Cerevasiae. CONCLUSION: Local complementary foods used in this study contained both probiotic bacteria (Lactobacillus species) and yeast (Saccharomyces Cerevasiae)

Design and Development of a Trapezoidal Plate Fin Heat Exchanger for the Prediction of Heat Exchanger Effectiveness

A trapezoidal plate-fin exchanger has been designed and developed, and an experimental test rig fabricated to test the plate fin heat exchanger. The heat exchanger was constructed in a 5 layer cross-flow arrangement. The length of the trapezoidal fins between the layers were 380mm and its height, thickness, top width and bottom width were 40mm, 0.5mm, 20mm, and 80mm respectively. A hot fluid test has been conducted to determine the thermo- hydraulic performance of the given heat exchanger at different mass flow rates (4.975 kg/s to 9.751 kg/s) at a hot inlet temperature of 369K. The values of the effectiveness obtained were plotted against the corresponding values mass flow rate to compare and evaluate the variation of the results. Thus, the performance of a heat exchanger with trapezoidal fins has been studied experimentally and it has been determined that: the mass flow rate of the fluids is proportional to the temperature drop of the fluids after passing through the exchanger. Also Increase in mass flow rate, increases the effectiveness of the heat exchanger. Improper insulation influenced heat transfers in heat exchanger cores and caused energy imbalance in the heat exchanger. This study suggests that the calculated effectiveness of 0.98 using trapezoidal plate fin heat exchanger result provides benchmark data to evaluate and predicts the performance of a plate-fin heat exchanger with trapezoidal fins for energy recovery application. Keywords: Heat exchanger development; trapezoidal fin, effectiveness, heat exchanger analysis; hot and cold fluids DOI: 10.7176/JETP/9-8-03 Publication date: November 30th 201

Animal Cruelty: A Review

Animal Cruelty cases make headlines around the world every day, whether it’s the person who kills the neighbour’s cat, the hoarder of sick and dying animals or the family whose freezing, starving dog is tied up outside in the middle of the winter. Animal Cruelty has several types which may be one of Simple Neglect, Gross Neglect, Intentional Abuse, Animal Hoarding, Organized Abuse, Ritualistic Abuse or Animal Sexual Assault. These cases of Cruelty cannot be overlooked as it has proven to have severe implications ranging from the fact that it is linked to other crimes, to the factual truth that these practises inflict great pain on these animals that have nobody to speak for them. Combating this menace of Animal Cruelty is a Journey that must be undertaken and everybody including the Government, NGOs and even Culture has a major role to play in this.  This review looks at Animal Cruelty in the world while paying a little more attention to Nigeria

Luminosity distance and redshift in the Szekeres inhomogeneous cosmological models

The Szekeres inhomogeneous models can be used to model the true lumpy universe that we observe. This family of exact solutions to Einstein's equations was originally derived with a general metric that has no symmetries. In this work, we develop and use a framework to integrate the angular diameter and luminosity distances in the general Szekeres models. We use the affine null geodesic equations in order to derive a set of first-order ordinary differential equations that can be integrated numerically to calculate the partial derivatives of the null vector components. These equations allow the integration in all generality of the distances in the Szekeres models and some examples are given. The redshift is determined from simultaneous integration of the null geodesic equations. This work does not assume spherical or axial symmetry, and the results will be useful for comparisons of the general Szekeres inhomogeneous models to current and future cosmological data.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure, matches JCAP accepted versio

The Impact of Space Radiation Environment on Satellites Operation in Near-Earth Space

Energetic particles and electromagnetic radiation (EM) from solar events and galactic cosmic rays can bombard and interact with satellites’ exposed surfaces, and sometimes possess enough energy to penetrate their surface. Among other known effects, the scenario can cause accelerated orbit decay due to atmospheric drag, sporadic and unexplainable errors in functions of sensitive parts, degradation of critical properties of structural materials, jeopardy of flight worthiness, transient and terminal health hazard to both onboard passengers and astronauts, and sometimes a catastrophic failure that can abruptly end satellite mission. The understanding of the dynamics of the space radiation environment and associated effects is critically important for satellites design and operation in ionospheric plasma environment, in which satellites are designed to function. In this chapter we review some satellite anomalies associated with the space radiation environment and conclude with mitigation effort that can reduce such impact

A study on Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles synthesized from Titanium Isopropoxide under Silar-Induced Gel Method : transition from Anatase to Rutile structure

Abstract: Successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method was adopted in synthesizing titanium dioxide nanoparticles at various temperatures so as to investigate their morphological, structural, elemental, optical, chemical bond and photoluminescence properties. The as-prepared nanoparticles were characterized with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected area electron diffractometer (SAED), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX), UV-Visible spectrophotometry (UV-Vis), photoluminescence (PL) spectra and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Nanospherical balls revealing anatase and rutile crystal structures at (101) and (110) planes respectively were observed. Agglomerations of chain-like small particles manifested in Debye-Scherrer’s rings were evident from the TEM and SAED patterns. EDX spectra confirmed the deposition of the major elements: Ti and O. High transmittance of about 80% with a band gap energy range of 3.41-3.60 eV was obtained from the optical properties. Emission peaks arising from the PL spectra gave information on the charge transport and recombination rates occurring at the TiO2 nanoparticles while FTIR studies revealed the chemical vibrational bonds of the deposited TiO2 NPs. The obtained results show the deposited nanoparticles are suitable for solar cell applications